Models of Professionalism: Post-WWI Strategies and Ideologies Towards a Canadian Professional Theatre by Grace Smith a Thesis Su
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Models of Professionalism: Post-WWI Strategies and Ideologies Towards a Canadian Professional Theatre by Grace Smith A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies University of Toronto © Copyright Grace Smith 2018 ii Models of Professionalism: Post-WWI Strategies and Ideologies Towards a Canadian Professional Theatre Grace Smith Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies University of Toronto 2018 Abstract The prevailing historical narratives of twentieth-century Canadian theatre have generally pinpointed a few particular post-WWII theatre companies in Ontario as the first professional companies in the province, if not in the whole country. These narratives apply the label of professional as though its definition and implications were self-evident and not historically- contingent. This study unpacks the professional status of Ontario’s first post-WWII professional theatre companies by first examining the interwar theatre community, models, and discourse which preceded the post-war companies. Using Bourdieu’s field theory and studies of professions/professionalism, this study argues that a collection of professional signifiers best serves an analysis of these post-WWII Ontario companies and the source of their professional status. Through this foundational framework this study illuminates professionalization as a purposeful process that is not always beneficial and for which exclusion is necessary; the interwar Ontario theatre community is analysed in this study through its prioritization of certain iii aesthetic tastes, class and political ideologies, and culturally and historically-contingent standards of theatrical competence. Through case studies and analysis of historical and rhetorical trends, this study will then examine the post-WWII professional companies in Ontario, including the New Play Society, Jupiter Theatre, and Crest Theatre of Toronto, the Stratford Festival, and the Canadian Repertory Theatre of Ottawa, and their use of theatrical models, professional signifiers, and rhetoric from the interwar theatre discourse to establish and reinforce their status as both Canadian and professional. It was necessary for these companies, as I will argue, to signify both their professionalism and Canadian-ness in order to distance themselves from older failed models of professional theatre and to create a new, sustainable model. This study will also explore how a growing anxiety in the Ontario theatre community over seemingly-unknowable audience tastes and encroaching American commercialism characterized the interwar discourse and the founding principles of the post-WWII professional companies, so much so that these anxieties are still undercurrents of contemporary theatre criticism. iv Acknowledgements I am grateful to Nancy Copeland, Barry Freeman, and Colin Hill for their guidance, patience and suggestions over the course of many years and many chapter drafts. Their unique perspectives and expertise expanded my outlook on this area of research. Thanks also to Robin Whittaker for his valuable input as external. I would like to thank the faculty and staff at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies for their assistance throughout this study. I am grateful to the staff at many libraries and theatres, but especially those at the Toronto Reference Library, Hart House, and the EJ Pratt Library for accommodating my obscure requests, and to the staff at the Robarts Media Commons for repeatedly and kindly reminding me how to use the microform scanners. I would also like to thank Roberta Barker at Dalhousie University for initially piquing my interest in Canadian theatre and archival research during my undergraduate studies. Finally, I am indebted to my partner, Leete, and to my family and friends for their constant understanding and patience as I disappeared for months at a time into this study. Table of Contents Introduction: Professionals Without a Profession……….…………………………………….1 Chapter 1: Definitions and Theoretical Framing………….………………………………….23 Chapter 2: Towards a New Model of Professionalism…….…………………………...…….71 Chapter 3: Developing Field Dynamics and Boundaries Through Professional Models.……99 Chapter 4: Negotiating Professional Status in Post-WWII Ontario Theatre……………......157 Conclusion….……………………………………………………………………………….215 Works Cited ….……………………………………………………………………………..222 1 Introduction: Professionals Without a Profession In the ten years following World War II, a number of professional theatre companies were founded in Ontario; these were a departure from the province’s pre-WWII professional theatre, which was composed almost entirely of foreign stock companies and touring productions. In theatre history, the professional status of these companies is usually treated as undisputed and singular; little analysis is given to what the label of professionalism meant for these companies or how they obtained it.1 The narrative is usually presented that, in the otherwise amateur community of Ontario theatre and in the absence of a professional theatre field, these professional companies were suddenly founded and paved the way for more professional theatre to come. In actuality, the process by which one achieves professional status without an established professional field is inexact, subjective, and undefined. Without the structure of a professional field, public and peer recognition are key to professional status; however, public and peer recognition are also subjective and ever-changing, defined by prominent examples of professionalism, publicity and marketing, colloquial definitions, and the past and current theatrical landscape. This study will interrogate the source of professional status for the first professional theatre companies in Ontario and trace what interwar theatrical models led to their practices and reception. The first of these professional theatre companies were the New Play Society (NPS, founded in 1946) and the Canadian Repertory Theatre (CRT, founded in 1949); other significant early professional theatres in Ontario included the Jupiter Theatre founded in 1951, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival founded in 1953, and the Crest Theatre 1 Comprehensive sources such as Robert B. Scott’s “Professional Performers and Companies,” as well as more specific studies like Sperdakos’s Dora Mavor Moore and Illidge’s The Glass Cage, do the important work of recounting and recovering the operations and practices of these post-WWII companies, but the professionalism of the companies is left unexamined. 2 founded 1954. These companies emerged from community needs and individual efforts to foster professionalism; their origins were not aided by professional infrastructure or government support. According to their contemporary reviews and publicity, these companies were recognized within their operating years as professional by the media, by their peers, and by their audiences; some were recognized as professional immediately, others reluctantly. What is less obvious at first glance is how precisely they were able to achieve that recognition. A major objective of this study is to determine how these post-WWII Ontario companies were able to achieve recognition of their professionalism and what historically-specific theatrical paradigms they navigated to achieve it. Furthermore, this study will explore why these Ontario companies were able to gain professional status in the post-WWII decade when the interwar Canadian theatre discourse was characterized by anxiety over the lack of Canadian professional theatres. The 1930s were an active time in the amateur theatre community of Ontario; despite this obvious interest and participation in the theatre from Ontario residents, the few professional companies that achieved some semblance of commercial success during this period were seen as distinctly not Canadian - they were based on pre-WWI models for professional theatre and were often run by American producers. Before the post-WWII Ontario theatres could be thought of as professional, new Canadian theatrical models would need to combine with old models to create the possibility of theatre that was Canadian, professional, and functional. Throughout this period of amateur drama, critics and artists proposed and dissected many theatrical models; they discussed how Ontario might possibly foster the start of a Canadian professional theatre. This study will trace the theatrical examples - or models – on which a professional Canadian theatre could be based that were commonly proposed in the theatrical discourse and practiced in the interwar period. Using these models’ distinguishing characteristics and rhetoric, I will analyze 3 the source of professional Canadian status for the first post-WWII Ontario professional companies. The inter- and post-war professionalization discourse was carried out through articles and reviews published in magazines and newspapers; its major topics of anxiety resonate in today’s Ontario theatre landscape, with numerous critics and journalists worrying over the domination of American culture, the ever-present mystery of what audiences want to see, and mysterious gap between regular theatre-goers and the rest of the local population. As this study traces the theatre in Ontario as it underwent dramatic changes throughout the period of this study we will see the birth of formative cultural dynamics and frustrations that remain woven into the theatre discourse today. Scholarship